[WiLT] Prevent scheme alienating not helping communities

[WiL Admin]

Prevent scheme alienating not helping communities

A cohesion programme aimed at building positive relationships between people of
different backgrounds has been tarnished by the counter-terrorism agenda and is
backfiring in the very local communities it was designed to support, according
to MPs.

The Prevent scheme has instead 'stigmatised and alienated those it is most
important to engage, and tainted many positive community cohesion projects',
says the report by the communities and local government (CLG) committee.

Moreover, the government's strategy to limit the development of violent
extremism in the UK 'sits poorly' within a counter-terrorism strategy.

Committee chair Phyllis Starkey called for 'a different approach' to be taken,
saying: 'We agree that a targeted strategy must address the contemporary
al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist threat, but we do not believe a government
department charged with promoting cohesive communities should take a leading
role in this counter-terrorism initiative.

'Much of the positive work undertaken by CLG to promote better community
cohesion and to curb social exclusion has been tainted by association with the
counter-terrorism agenda. Any decision to widen the Prevent programme would only
make this problem worse.'

The committee called for measures including:

. A more clearly risk-based approach to tackling all kinds of extremism
. Revisit a recommendation for a central 'rebuttal unit' to help local
authorities tackle all extremist myths with accurate facts
. Make funding available to projects encouraging direct participation in
democratic debate.

Dr Starkey added: 'Many witnesses made plain they believe Prevent has been used
to "spy" on Muslim communities. The misuse of terms such as "intelligence
gathering" amongst Prevent partners has clearly discredited the programme and
fed distrust.'

In December last year communities secretary John Denham said the government was
looking to make the Prevent more effective and defended against accusations that
the programme encouraged public sector workers to spy on individuals vulnerable
to extremism.

Just a few months earlier, a damning report by the New Local Government Network
(NLGN) claimed Prevent was hampering the ability of local authorities to build
safe and cohesive communities and should be scrapped.

NLGN deputy director Anna Turley called this week's report 'bold and thoughtful'
and welcomed the emphasis on clarity around the relationship between community
cohesion and counter-terrorism.

'I was particularly pleased to see support for some of the key recommendations
from our report Stronger together,' she said, 'including the need to strengthen
information-sharing between local partners to ensure local authorities have the
information required to decide funding, as well as the need to provide more
training and support to front line workers such as council staff, police,
teachers and youth workers.'

But she disagreed with the report's concern that local authorities 'have been
left with too much responsibility for deciding how engagement and project
funding should be managed', commenting: 'The problem is that they have not
always felt they have the guidance, shared-intelligence and tools needed to
enable them to fulfil their obligations to the best of their ability.'

Ted Cantle, executive chair of the Institute of Community Cohesion (Icoco),
said: 'The key problem with Prevent has been that, until very recently, it has
been entirely focussed on Muslim communities. This has meant that it has
alienated many sections of the Muslim community who resent the association with
"terror".

'It has also reinforced the idea in the minds of people who are not Muslims,
that Muslims are potential terrorists, or that they are all "a problem" and
fails to recognise the diversity within the Muslim community.

'Because the Prevent agenda is delivered as part of the counter-terrorism
strategy - which is, again, wholly Muslim focused - it has been unable to gain
the trust and confidence of Muslim communities who fear that Prevent may be used
for "spying" on them and that any involvement may put them, their families and
friends at risk if they as much as express extreme or strong views, for example
in respect of international policy.'

He added that the report would 'help to re-position the Prevent agenda as one
which works across all communities to prevent violence - especially from far
right groups - and any others that have had an association with violent means'.

from
http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news/article/2645/tainted-prevent-has-stigmatised-and-alienated

Preventing Violent Extremism
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmcomloc.htm


More on this by committee chair at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/30/islam-extremism-communities